“Everyone starts with dagga, then mandrax and then coke (cocaine), which means now everyone is on the same path to start drugs,” Cele said.

Cele was reacting to the Constitutional Court ruling while addressing students at the University of Zululand in Empangeni on Tuesday afternoon.

The court ruled on Tuesday morning that the personal and private use of dagga was not a criminal offence.

In handing down judgment, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said: “The right to privacy is not confined to a home or private dwelling. It will not be a criminal offence for an adult person to use or be in possession of cannabis in private space.”

The court gave Parliament 24 months to update legislation relating to marijuana to be in line with its ruling.

Cele visited the university following the fatal stabbing of 20-year-old first-year student Sazi Ngubo, allegedly by his roommate, on Sunday.

“As I’m standing here, some few hours ago we had a judgment from the ConCourt that allowed you to smoke dagga. Well I haven’t read it, I’m just told what it entails, but it doesn’t entail you working with lots and lots of dagga. But if the judge had asked me, I would have said, no dagga smoking,” said Cele to the loud cheers of students.

Cele had earlier told the media that universities across the country had raised concerns over the accessibility to drugs and alcohol abuse at higher learning institutions.

“Another thing that has been raised is lack of support to students when it came to counselling in order for management to help them out of those things,” he said.